Richard Byrne and Ann Smet at the University of St Andrews, UK, gave 11 captive African elephants a choice of two buckets – one containing food, one without. Both buckets had been rubbed with the food to make them smell the same. Smet then stood between the buckets, pointing towards the food. On average, the elephants chose the correct bucket 68 per cent of the time, a performance on a par with a 1-year-old child (Current Biology, doi.org/n79).

This ability is surprising considering how poor their eyesight is, says Byrne. Elephants rely heavily on smell and sound – their eyesight is similar to that of people with a form of colour blindness called deuteranopia.

Although elephants “point” with their trunk in the wild, it was assumed they were simply sniffing the air. The study suggests that the trunk could act as a communication tool as well. “Elephants are cognitively much more like us than has been realised,” says Byrne. “This makes them able to understand our characteristic way of indicating things by pointing.”

This article appeared in print under the headline “Elephants understand the point of humans pointing”